It is quite impossible for an individual farmer to
look after the welfare of his cattle in his own home in a proper and scientific
manner. Amongst other causes lack of collective effort has been a principal
cause of the deterioration of the cow and hence of cattle in general.
The world today is moving towards the ideal of
collective or co-operative effort in every department of life. Much in this line
has been and is being accomplished. It has come into our country also, but in
such a distorted form that our poor have not been able to reap its benefits.
Pari passu with the increase in our population land holdings of the average
farmers are daily decreasing. Moreover, what the individual possesses in often
fragmentary. For such farmers to keep cattle in their homes is a suicidal
policy; and yet this is their condition today. Those who give the first place to
economics and pay scant attention to religious, ethical or humanitarian
considerations proclaim from the house-tops that the farmer is being devoured by
his cattle due to the cost of their feed which is out of all proportion to what
they yield. They say it is folly not to slaughter wholesale all useless animals.
What then should be done by humanitarians is the
question. The answer obviously is to find a way whereby we may not only save the
lives of our cattle but also see that they do not become a burden. I am sure
that co-operative effort can help us in a large measure.
The following comparison may he helpful:

Under the collective system no farmer can keep
cattle in his house as he does today. They foul the air, and dirty the
surroundings. There is neither intelligence nor humanitarianism in living
with animals. Man was not meant to do so. The space taken up by the cattle
today would be spared to the farmer and his family, if the collective system
were adopted

As the number of cattle increases, life
becomes impossible to the farmer in his home. Hence he is obliged to sell
the calves and kill the male buffaloes or else turn them out to starve and
die. This inhumanity would be averted if the care of the cattle were under
taken on a co-operative basis.

Collective cattle-farming would ensure the
supply of veterinary treatment to animals when they are ill. No ordinary
farmer can afford this on his own.

Similarly one selected bull can be easily kept
for the need of several cows under the collective system. This is impossible
otherwise except for charity.

Common grazing ground or land for exercising
the animals will be easily available under the co-operative system, whereas
today generally there is nothing of the kind for individual farmers.

The expenses on fodder will be comparatively
far less under the collective system.

The sale of milk at good prices will be
greatly facilitated and there will be no need or temptation for the farmer
to adulterate it as he does as an individual.

It is impossible to carry out tests of the
fitness of every head of cattle individually, but this could easily be done
for the cattle of a whole village and would thus make it easier to improve
the breed.

The foregoing advantages should be sufficient
argument in favour of co-operative cattle-farming. The strongest argument in
its favour is that the individualistic system has been the means of making
our own condition as well as that of our cattle pitiable. We can only save
ourselves and them by making this essential change.

I firmly believe too that we shall not derive the
full benefits of agriculture until we take to co-operative farming. Does it not
stand to reason that it is far better for a hundred families in a village to
cultivate their lands collectively and divide the income therefrom than to
divide the land anyhow into a hundred portions? And what applies to land applies
equally to cattle.
It is quite another matter that it may be
difficult to convert people to adopt this way of life straightaway. The straight
and narrow road is always hard to traverse. Every step in the programme of cow
service is strewn with thorny problems. But only by surmounting difficulties can
we hope to make the path easier. My purpose for the time being is to show the
great superiority of collective cattle-farming over the individual effort. I
hold further that the latter is wrong and the former only is right. In reality
even the individual can only safeguard his independence through co-operation. In
cattle-farming the individual effort has led to selfishness and inhumanity,
whereas the collective effort can abate both the evils, if it does not remove
them altogether.

Harijan, 15-2-‘42

The excreta of animals and human beings mixed with
refuse can be turned into golden manure, itself a valuable commodity. It
increases the productivity of the soil which receives it. Preparation of this
manure is itself a village industry. But this, like all village industries
cannot give tangible results unless the crores of India co-operated in reviving
them and thus making India prosperous.